Running a generator without killing anyone.

Outside, on the ground, at least twenty feet from the building, with the exhaust pointing away from every door, window, and vent. Never in a garage, never on a porch, never in a basement or a crawl space, and never in a shed, with the door open or shut.

A portable generator produces carbon monoxide at a rate that can make an attached garage lethal in minutes, and the people it kills each year overwhelmingly believed they had enough ventilation.

The three ways generators kill or maim

Carbon monoxide, by far the most common. An open garage door is not ventilation. A covered porch is not outside. Twenty feet and exhaust pointed away is the guidance, and further is better.

Backfeeding. Plugging a generator into a wall outlet to power the house sends current back out through the meter into the utility’s lines, where it can kill the crews working to restore your power, and it bypasses every protective device in your house. Connecting a generator to house wiring requires a transfer switch or an interlock, installed by an electrician, with a permit in most places. There is no safe improvised version of this.

Fire. Refueling a hot generator, or storing fuel next to it, or running it against a wall.

Setting it up properly

• Twenty feet minimum, on a level, dry, firm surface.
• Exhaust pointed away from the building, and away from a neighbor’s building too.
• Under an open canopy if it is raining, purpose made, with clearance on all sides. Never against a wall and never enclosed.
• Dry hands, dry generator. Do not run it in standing water.
• Grounded according to its manual.
• Fuel stored away from it, in approved containers, never indoors, and never near anything with a pilot light.
• Refuel with the engine off and cooled. Gasoline on a hot exhaust ignites.
• Do not overload it. Add up what you actually need to run and check the rating, remembering that motors draw far more at startup than while running.

Extension cords, which is where the fires start

Use heavy gauge outdoor rated cords, as short as the distance allows, fully uncoiled. A coiled cord under load heats up inside the coil. Check the cord is rated for the current you are drawing, and do not daisy chain cords together.

Do not run cords under rugs or through doorways where they will be pinched.

What to actually power

Priorities in an outage, roughly:

• The fridge and freezer, in rotation rather than continuously. A fridge kept shut holds for hours; the timings are worth knowing.
• Medical equipment. If anyone depends on powered medical equipment, tell your utility in advance, because many maintain a priority register.
• A sump pump, in a wet basement. A pump that cannot run during a storm is the classic failure.
• Heating controls in a freeze, if the system can run from it.
• Phone charging and one or two lights.

Not: an electric shower, a clothes dryer, or an electric stovetop, unless the generator is genuinely rated for them.

Carbon monoxide alarms, again

They are the thing that turns a mistake into a near miss instead of a funeral. Battery powered, on every level, tested. Buy them now rather than during the next outage, when they will be sold out.

The same alarms cover the other winter risk, which is heating equipment run badly. Which is its own emergency.

Standby generators

A permanently installed standby unit with an automatic transfer switch avoids most of the above: it is outside by design, it is connected properly, and it starts on its own. It costs a great deal more and it needs installing by an electrician with the necessary permits.

If you are relying on power for medical reasons, or you live somewhere with frequent long outages, it is worth pricing.

The short version

Twenty feet away, outside, exhaust pointed away from the building. Never a garage, never a porch, never a shed. Never plug it into a wall outlet: that needs a transfer switch fitted by an electrician. Refuel cold. Fit battery powered carbon monoxide alarms before the next outage.